In designing a mechanism for reducing food waste in a food waste disposer, consideration must be paid to the speed with which a reduction operation is completed and the resulting size of particulate matter produced during the reduction operation. A manufacturer must also consider the demands that a wide variety of food waste with varying properties (i.e., soft, hard, fibrous, stringy, leafy, elastic, and resilient) may have on a reduction mechanism in the disposer. Due to healthier diets, for example, consumers tend to eat more fruits and vegetables, resulting in food waste having a soft, stringy, leafy, or resilient consistency. Additionally, the modem diet has increased in consumption of white meat. The waste from meat typically includes bone. Although the bones from white meat are typically not as durable or difficult to grind compared to bones from red meat, the bones from white meat tend to splinter. In addition, the waste from white meat typically includes skin, which is elastic and resilient.
A number of mechanisms for reducing food waste in a food waste disposer are used in the art. One example of a mechanism of the prior art is used in the General Electric Model GFC 700Y Household Disposer manufactured by Watertown Industries. Other examples of mechanisms of the prior art are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,007,006 to Engel et al. and 6,439,487 to Anderson et al., which are owned by the assignee of record and are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. In the prior art disposers of the '006 and '487 patents, a rotatable plate is connected to a motor and has lugs attached to the plate. A stationary ring is attached to the housing of the disposer and is positioned vertically about the periphery of the rotatable plate. During operation of the prior art mechanisms, food waste is delivered to the rotatable plate, and the lugs force the food waste against the stationary ring. Teeth on the stationary ring grind the food waste into particulate matter sufficiently small enough to pass from above the rotatable plate to below the plate via spaces between the teeth and the periphery of the rotatable plate. The particulate matter then passes to a discharge outlet of the disposer.
While mechanisms of the prior art disposer are satisfactory for reducing food waste in most applications, designers of food waste disposers continually strive to design and manufacture mechanisms capable of adequately reducing a number of types of food waste that may be encountered by the disposer. Current designs of reduction mechanisms in disposers may encounter some difficulty in sufficiently reducing fibrous, stringy, or elastic food waste, such as cornhusks, artichokes, parsley stems, poultry bones, and poultry skin, for example. Such food waste may pass though the radial spaces between the rotatable plate and stationary ring without being adequately reduced in size. Consequently, the passed fibrous or stringy food waste may create blockages in the disposer discharge or in the household plumbing. Moreover, such semi-reduced fibrous waste is prone to lingering in the disposer instead of being washed away in the plumbing, which can cause foul odors from the disposer. It is presently not recommended by food waste disposer manufacturers to dispose of highly fibrous food waste such as corn husks or artichoke leaves in a food waste disposer, and in fact instructions that currently accompany the sale of a food waste disposer typically make this point explicit.
The art has thus long searched for solution to remediate the problems presented by the inadequate reduction of fibrous food wastes in a food waste disposer. If a food waste disposer grinding system could completely grind and suitably discharge such fibrous materials, the consumer would no longer have to be concerned about putting inappropriate items in the disposer. The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.